Rope chain with ring holder pendant
This is technically a chainmail spiral 2-in-1 chain, except instead of round jump rings, it uses rounded chain link shapes of 0.8mm diameter wire. This design and wire guage was chosen for very specific reasons.
Since the tantalum links can’t be welded closed (at least not by me), I had to pick a strong design that isn’t bulky. The 2-in-1 is essentially 2 complete chains interwoven, meaning twice the strength. The elongated chain link also uses less material for covering the same distance. Also, the elongated link shape keeps the chain twisted into a spiral, unlike with round jump rings. Regardless, I needed nearly 6 meters of wire and almost 400 links for this chain. I made the links by wrapping the wire around a form and then cutting it off, like with jump rings.
My wife doesn’t like to wear rings, so I made a ring holder pendant. This pendant allows you to take place or remove the ring without taking off the necklace, like one of those old puzzles/brain teasers with rope and rings. I made it from 2mm tantalum wire, which I basically crushed repeatedly using filed-off side cutters to get the shape you see in the pictures. It was very tiring, because the 2mm wire is extremely tough - it must be hardened already.
Heavy cable chain with various stone pendants
I wanted an industrial-looking chain for myself, and after many calculations and even FEA analyses of the pulling strength of non-welded chain links, I decided to go with 2mm diameter wire. What I didn’t think to check before ordering it, was whether it was hardened or annealed. It was so incredibly difficult to bend by hand, that I figured it must be hardened. I ended up making a machine to be able to bend it, because it was basically impossible with typical hand tools. In fact, the first machine was quickly destroyed, so I ended up designing a die and ram and getting it cut from tool steel to use with my arbor press.
The pendants are made from raw emerald and azurite that I picked up at a shop in Tokyo, as well as raw moss agate, opal, and moonstone that I got from various Etsy shops. I used a dremel with a diamond disc, and also a hammer, to break down some of it to the right size. After that, I put them all in a vibratory tumbler and went through the long process of polishing them. Note: there is one pendant where the stones have been left unpolished. Afterwards, I drilled some holes using diamond bits and strung up the stones with pure titanium wire. The large rings holding the pendants are also titanium wire, which I wire-wrapped around itself.
Blackening
Blackening took a lot of experimenting, but basically I used a torch to heat the tantalum just before the point where it becomes a deep red. It gets sweaty looking, and then there is just a hint of deep red. At that point, I quenched it in water. This gave it a very dark gray/black color, but without the white sheen that happens if you heat it further, like to glowing orange.